528 
and language of piety from children, and 
has doubtless given birth to abundance of 
silly stories about infant conversions. While 
in the Isle of Wight, he commenced a pub- 
lication of the ‘‘ Fathers of the English 
Church,’’ which extended, eventually, to 
eight octavo volumes—a work of cousider- 
able laboux—exhibiting the substance of the 
writings of Tindal, Ridley, Cranmer, Lati- 
mer, Hooper, Bradford, Sewell, and others. 
In the Christian Observer, he reviewed, 
with great care, the controversy between 
Overton and Archdeacon Daubeny, of 
which he observes in his diary—‘ surely 
this is conclusive.”? Prompted by this per- 
formance, apparently, Hannah Moore of- 
fered him the curacy of Cheddar, which, 
however, he declined, and undertook to 
assist at the Lock, a wider field for useful- 
ness. From the Lock he was speedily re- 
moved ; some old lady, who held the ad- 
vowson of Turvey, in Bedfordshire, placed 
it at the disposal of a frequenter of the 
Lock, and he conferred it forthwith upon 
the new preacher. To Turvey he accord- 
ingly went, and continued there, for twenty 
years, till his death. 
His activity, and extraordinary powers of 
extempore preaching, soon brought him into 
conspicuous notice with his party. He now 
took a leading part in the business of reli- 
gious societies — bibles, Jews, missions, 
schools, and particularly distinguished him- 
self by his preaching tours—collecting for 
specific objects—chiefly the conversion of 
the Jews. Such, indeed, was his almost 
miraculous facility, that he was always ready 
to preach or expound. In one of his tours, 
we find in his diary—<‘ Dined with dear 
Mrs. P. at S. Lodge. A most profitable 
and spiritual party. It was suddenly pro- 
posed, after dinner, that I should preach a 
lecture that night at Lancaster. At two 
hours’ notice, about 1,000 people were col- 
lected.”” On another occasion—“ In the 
evening I expounded the 23d Psalm to a 
large company of friends and neighbours.” 
These multiplied engagements took him 
much from his parish and family; but his 
care and anxiety for both were unceasing, 
notwithstanding the invidious remarks to 
which he subjected himself by these ab- 
sences. He had a family of twelve children, 
of whom, the eldest, proving wayward, went 
to sea, and was, finally, wrecked, though 
not before he had been recalled to his fa- 
ther’s sentiments. A second son partook 
largely of his father’s feelings and tempera- 
ment, but died just as his father began to 
anticipate the blessed fruits, and contem- 
plate him as his own adequate successor. 
The effect, combined with the previous loss 
of his eldest son, was painful and pressing 
upon the disappointed parent—he had over- 
worked—the disappointment took posses- 
sion of a shaken, though not quite a shat- 
tered frame—it absorbed his thoughts, 
depressed his spirits, hung upon his feel- 
ings, and chagrined and gloomed his de- 
Monthly Review of Literature, 
clining days—he died at 55, in May 1827. 
The volume contains many of his letters, 
chiefly addressed to his children in his ab- 
sences—some on the marriages of his daugh- 
ters—all of them full of earnest and affec- 
tionate concern for their spiritual welfare ; 
and at the close, the biographer gives two 
letters, from the widow, and one of the 
daughters, which speak volumes for the 
amiable and’ excellent qualities of the man, 
and the influence he had gained, and the 
respect he had inspired in the members of 
his own family—written with great feeling, 
and. energy, and ability—too full, of course, 
of scripture phrases, and proving clearly 
how well they were each of them qualified 
to preach themselves. 
America, or a General Survey of the 
Political Siiuation of the several Powers 
of the Western Continent, &c., bya Citi- 
zen of the United States, Author of “ Eu- 
rope,’’ Sc. ; 1828.—For the present every 
body seems to be beginning to have had 
enough of America. This is unlucky—for 
the progress of a new state, built on new 
principles—explicitly in favour of individual 
liberty—an untried course of being—has 
something in it, surely, that deserves to 
command attention. But the truth is, we 
have been deluged with accounts from in- 
competent or interested quarters—on the 
one hand, from travellers, whose object has 
been not observation, but business—none of 
them men of education, or good society, 
or independent thoughts, but the creatures 
of newspapers, full of prejudices, extremes, 
and undigested materials, and disappointed, 
perhaps, in their private views—men of 
coarse habits, and certainly of no real deli- 
cacy—of no cultivation, in short, of mind 
or manners; and, on the other hand, from 
Americans themselves, who have eyes for 
nothing but their own superiorities. Part- 
ly, to be sure, America has been piqued by 
abuse and depreciation to assert itself, and 
partly cockered into conceit and presump- 
tion by the high-flown panegyrics of some 
among us, who have made cat’s paws of the 
Americans to serve the purposes of. political 
oppositicn at home. The character of the 
Americans has become precisely what our 
own used to be a few years ago—braggart. 
and bullying—comparing our roast beef 
with French frogs—full shirts and top boots 
with frills and wooden shoes—our own rosy 
gills with their anatomie vivante. 
The writer before us is a good specimen 
of the American, who sees nothing but su- 
periority over England in his own institue 
tions. His very motto—matre pulchra, 
Jfilia pulchrior—is a sufficient indication of 
American modesty. Anticipating that 
America must become the most -powerful 
nation in the world, he already takes the 
tone of supremacy, though professedly, at 
present, placing her only on a level with 
England and Russia. But England must 
soon shrink to a third or fouxth rate power, - 
7 
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[Nov. 
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